Touring the Viaticum material at this point (five of its tracks fill most of the first of two CDs), a rapturous welcome heralds Tide of Trepidation, its ominously-building groove falling away to spotlight Svensson’s incredible focus at the grand piano – easy to imagine him hunched low over the keyboard, rocking as he sensitively summons and crafts each new idea. Even with an expectation of the alchemy between Svensson, Berglund and Öström, the spine-tingling magic is still apparent, particularly under close scrutiny. It’s a 106-minute immersion into their Strange Place for Snow (2002), Seven Days of Falling (2003) and Viaticum (2005) period – when the world outside of Scandinavia also began to take note of this rising phenomenon and significantly, for enthusiasts, only one of these ten tracks has appeared on the previous live issues. live in London is unveiled, garnered from their sell-out 2005 gig at London’s Barbican Centre. Now, poignantly coinciding with the ten-year anniversary of Esbjörn’s passing, e.s.t. Live in Hamburg captured something of that essence, particularly how they intuitively developed improvisation beyond usual studio-album confines. Live ’95 and especially 2007’s acclaimed double album E.S.T. Eleven studio recordings provide an astonishing legacy (interesting to revisit and recall just how revolutionary they sounded through the ‘90s into the ‘noughties’) and concerts were special, drawing huge, attentive crowds. Symphony project realised the influential pianist’s orchestral vision for their compositions. Two completely improvised studio albums, Leucocyte and 301 (released after Svensson’s untimely death), offered a glimpse of where the trio were heading next, and the recent E.S.T. eschewed the status quo when it came to their albums releases and thrilling live shows, fans wondered what might still lie “on the cutting room floor” or, more likely, have been lovingly archived by ACT Music’s boss Siggi Loch and sound engineer Åke Linton. So when pianist Esbjörn Svensson tragically died on 14 June 2008, there was profound grief – on an international scale.īassist Dan Berglund and drummer Magnus Öström slowly began to pick up the shattered pieces, establishing new projects and, because e.s.t. The Swedish friends broke down the barriers of genre with such conviction that non-jazzers were also drawn to their arguably unique synthesis of jazz, rock and classical sounds. Translating the relative simplicity of a piano trio into an outfit which could energize the pulse or melt the heart with dewdrop tenderness, they spawned and influenced a generation of bands which followed. (the Esbjörn Svensson Trio) were a truly seminal force in music.

CD review by Adrian Pallant)įor many, e.s.t.

Esbjörn svensson trio